– Free, zero-pitch Site Review Webinar on Thursday – WordPress Security Open Q&A Blab – an easy way to create a business disaster recovery plan – the release of Genesis 2.2.3 – my new theme and schema markup tests – how to protect your site from the new brute force attacks via XML-RPC – LastPass being acquired by LogMeIn – what you need to know about Google Amp and your site – Basic SEO Training from Yoast released – the top 10 places to include an optin on your site – the new Blab interface – a new plugin to auto embed Blab replays – Twitter allows video uploads from computer – and where to find the best Periscope tutorial

We had the first Blog on Purpose class last week and it was a fire hose of info on SEO including titles, metadata, permalinks, redirects, and the navigation menu.

And the folks in the class are experienced blogger who already had their SEO foundation laid.

Their heads were swimming with all the new info delivered about how to take everything up a notch with their SEO. They’ve been doing their homework all week too.

This week we’ll be covering Advanced Formatting that impacts CTAs, conversion, time on site, SEO, and more. And we’ll be looking at their site pages to give specific tips on how to improve them. This is not generic instruction. It’s the real deal that will take your site to the next level.

It’s too late to get in on this 6 week series, but if you want to jump into the next one, there is an Early Bird List that will get special discounts and bonuses.

The next class starts in January. So, if an amped up site that gets noticed by readers and search engines and converts well is going to be your New Year’s resolution, this is the class that will help you do that.

Just a reminder that we’re coming into busy season with folks wanting to get their sites ready for the new year.

If you need help with full Scratch to Published classes that will take you step-by-step launching or relaunching a site that hits the ground running day one, or you’re ready for a full site revamp, see my Classes page to get on the schedule before it starts filling up.

This is one of those things that everybody puts off, but wishes they had done when it happens. A disaster is not necessarily a total catastrophe. It could be a big storm that knocks out your power for a week. Or having to be off temporarily due to an accident that keeps you from sitting at your desk and working.

In this week’s GeekSpeak Guides episode, co-host +Susan Finch and I make it easy for you to not miss anything in your plan. And, we make it easy for you to put one together.

Just do it, you’ll sleep better knowing that if you become unavailable, your ICE contact will know how to take over, including who to contact that can keep things running for you, or shut things down properly.

You owe it to yourself and those who depend on you, including your clients, to get this done.

That’s all the news from around here. Let’s jump into this week’s tips from around the ‘net.

Theme Tips

The latest release of the Genesis framework rolled out yesterday. You should be getting an email notice that it’s available for your site soon, if you have not already. It’s mainly a few more bug fixes from the big 2.0 release.

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Themes and Schema Markup Tests

Y’all have heard me say for a while now that to get all of the schema markup support in both WordPress and Genesis, your child theme has to output it too.

The Genesis folks fixed a lot of schema errors with that 2.0 release. So, I’ve been running tests on my sites and on client sites, all of which have various levels of schema support in the child themes.

I was shocked by what I found. Things that were once supported are no longer coming through. And then there are a whole slew of new things.

All of a sudden some of us are not getting proper author credit, even though it has been set up correctly. It’s the fault of the theme. And there are a few people missing header information now too. So, definitely something you want to check into. And I give you an easy way to run the test.

Security Tips

There’s a new brute force attack vector and it uses the XML-RPC function. Y’all know that I’ve been telling you since early last year to get XML-RPC turned fully off on your sites. And I’ve been doing a lot of that in site audit fixes lately too.

You’ll want to know about the threats in this new way hackers have found to hit your site, and what you can do to protect yourself.

Team +Yoast has just announced the release of their first module in the new Yoast Academy course. It’s on beginner SEO. I’ll be taking it because learning directly from Yoast, and getting a badge that says so is a super good investment for me.

There is a limited time launch discount if you want in on the training too.

Conversion Tips

Pat Flynn has a new video out on his SPI TV channel that shows all the places you should include an opt-in form on your site. In fact, there are 10 of them.

You may be surprised to see that he has 2 optins on the About page alone.

Here’s the mentality behind that. You can have 10 optins in various places on the same page between your content, sidebar, below your content, above the header, a scroll triggered pop up, and so on, and you’ll be lucky to get viewers to notice them twice.

So go have a look at that video and get more folks converting on your site.

Video Streaming Tips

Surprise! Surprise! Blab rolled out a complete redesign to their interface last night. I was on a Blab in the afternoon and everything was the same. And by later that evening it had all changed.

And you know I’m going to be making a video on it asap too. So check the podcast show notes for the link when I get it added. May be later in the day after you initially see this post. Oh and heck, I’ll probably write a new post about it too.

I just saw an announcement from the SimplePodcast devs that they have a new plugin for auto embedding Blabs. It’s super sweet. They have a nice video showing all of the features.

But, I do have one minor and one major concern about it.

The minor concern is that there is zero text on the post. So, there’s nothing for Google to index as far as content. Of course, you can always go back into the post and edit that.

The major concern is that it also brings in all of the comments from the Blab. That does give something for Google to index. However, doing that may be out of compliance with Twitter’s TOS. It’s just like one of the G+ integration plugins that brings in posts and comments that then become part of the native WordPress comments.

The compliance issue is that the person who left the comment is no longer free to delete it on your site, as they would be on the actual platform.

So, if you use it, do so at your own risk of compliance. And FYI, I’ve never heard of a complaint or issue with the G+ comments thing. So, there you go.

In her super Weekly Marketing Skinny, +Ana Hoffman reported on the news about Twitter now allowing you to upload videos via computer instead of just phone.

I’m going to put that to the test with an intro to Tips Tuesday.

You may see it on Tuesday when I first tweet about this week’s round up, but certainly sometime this week, depending on how the talking head video shoot goes. Those can be real time sucks! But, I’m delighted about the news!!!

UPDATE: I did make a video and uploaded it from my computer. Instead of the usual :30 seconds, it cut it off at :20 seconds. So, going to make another that is shorter.

And she has a bunch more news you’re going to want to read in that post too. So, if you’re not already following her, make sure you do so.

About MaAnna Stephenson

MaAnna is a geek who can still speak in plain English and helps non-geeks create sites that get noticed by search engines and readers, are secure, plus convert, and perform well.Connect with MaAnna online

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Hi! I'm MaAnna, and I'm a geek who can still speak in plain English. I help non-geeks become confident, successful owners of sites that are secure, perform well, and get noticed by search engines and readers. How May I Help You?